Various Artists - Glastonbury Fayre

Archives of Avalon

Of his classic coming of age film Walkabout, director Nic Roeg once reflected how he’d “just came across things by chance… filming whatever [I] found”. He clearly found the same technique just as appropriate for his next film, a documentary of the 1971 Glastonbury Festival. The then recent relaxation of censorship in filmmaking gave Roeg the opportunity to capture the full essence of the first Glastonbury to be centred upon the Pyramid Stage, shooting full-frontal nudity to delineate the uninhibited state of minds. That said, it’s Roeg’s masterful cinematography of a definitively English landscape, juxtaposed with the unconstrained performances from Arthur Brown, Traffic, Melanie Safka, and other festival stalwarts, that fully captures the fabulous childlike immaturity of the peace and love generation. This is how it was before corporate vultures descended upon such events.

Released the following year, Glastonbury Fayre’s cinematic release failed to find an audience but has gained in stature over the years to become, alongside Murray Lerner’s 1970 Isle of Wight film Message To Love, a treasured reportage of the UK festival scene’s roots. Appearing on DVD for the first time, with a high-definition transfer and supported by a fascinating making-of documentary, this is simply essential viewing.

Odeon Entertainment | ODNM 011

Reviewed by Ian Abrahams
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